


An Innocent Crush

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: Kamen Rider Fourze
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crushes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 07:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10986432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: After returning to school and finding himself pursuing an interest in fighting, Kijima finds himself with a crush on the last person he'd ever liked: Ryusei Sakuta.





	An Innocent Crush

There are only two sounds in the room that Natsuji Kijima can hear; the rhythmic sound of his breathing combined with his opponent’s and the sound of hands and feet striking at skin. It’s more muffled when they hit clothes, but both of them have enough bruises to attest to that fact that only the sound is muffled. Not quite the force. Kijima doesn’t mind; he knew what he was signing himself up for when he left rakugo behind for this.

The familiar sound of their trainer’s voice is what brings them to a halt; Kijima is sorer than he’s been in days and he aches in places he has never ached before. In a way, though, it feels good. It feels as good as it did when he was training on his own in the dark, trying to learn the woman’s moves so he could pin his crimes on her. Now, he learns from her directly.

“Sakuta, Kijima, stand down.” Haruka commands her kickboxing club with ease and confidence, and Kijima steps back, taking in a slow and deep breath to begin calming down his body down. “Sakuta, you perform admirably as always.”

Ryusei Sakuta bows his head, never taking his eyes off of Kijima. “Thank you.”

Haruka turns her attention to Kijima, and he meets her gaze evenly. “You’re improving at a surprisingly fast rate, Kijima. I don’t know if you received any training when you were allied with the Horoscopes or if it’s just what you picked up mimicking me, but you have a talent for this.”

“Thank you.” Kijima doesn’t acknowledge the Horoscopes comment. He no longer has a need to.

Haruka moves on to another pair of sparring partners and Kijima relaxes the tension in his body, slowly sitting on the floor to stretch out his sore and stiff muscles. Ryusei gives him only a glance before walking purposefully away, widening the distance between the two of them. The pair of them are hardly anywhere near the same level in terms of fighting— Ryusei is far better than he has any hope of being, at least right now— but Haruka was intent the two of them needed to spar, sure that Kijima would pick up more from an experienced fighter.

He has no benchmarks for his progress. There is no crowd to make laugh, no smiles to make appear. His only sign that things are going as Haruka planned is that he and Ryusei continue to fight, though she may just be giving him an excuse to enact as much revenge as he wants.

Kijima sighs, dropping his head forward, wiping sweat from his forehead. He isn’t used to as much physical activity as this sport demands, but he’s still putting in as much effort as he can muster. He wants to prove that he can do this. He quit what had been his life’s passion up until this point to prove that he was capable of pulling this off, after all.

His head is still down when the towel drops over the back of his head, but he quickly jerks back to see who has gotten this close to him. Surprised, he finds himself eye-to-eye with Ryusei once again. Silently, Ryusei offers him what appears to be a bottle of water, his lips pressed into a thin line as if even he doubts his own actions. Kijima blinks at him, taking a moment to wipe his face off with the towel before he accepts the offered water bottle.

“Thank you,” he murmurs.

Ryusei shakes his head. “Don’t. You need to stay properly hydrated if you’re going to do something that takes this much effort. I know this isn’t the norm for you.”

“Still, you have no reason to help me. And you have no reason to pull your punches when we fight, but I know you do.” He can still remember what it felt like to be destroyed when he was in Cancer Nova’s form. “Why don’t you just take the chance laid out for you?”

To his surprise, Ryusei actually smiles down at him. “It would be wrong of me to do something like that to someone who isn’t prepared. Besides, you’re doing what you need to do to right your wrongs, and Kisaragi has taught me a bit about how forgiveness works. In the end, you were a pawn of Gamou’s just the same as the other Horoscopes were. That’s all.”

The thought is more wounding than it has any right to be, but Kijima knows the truth of the matter, that he was only given the power he was because somebody else needed that power for themself. He knows now that his Switch was more valuable than he could ever hope to be, and what little he did in his short time as Cancer— that was the sum of all of his parts as far as Gamou and Hayami were concerned. That was all he was worth, and when he became more of an annoyance than a help, he was tossed aside like all of the others.

“I don’t like admitting that you’re right because I don’t like being used, but it’s the reality of the situation and you aren’t wrong.” Kijima uncaps the bottle and takes a drink, the best way he can think to prove that he is taking Ryusei’s advice. “I didn’t expect forgiveness. I really don’t have a right to expect anything out of you.”

Ryusei rolls his shoulders, a thoughtful expression on his face before he stretches out a hand, extended toward Kijima. “I’m glad to hear these words come out of your mouth. It’s time to take your fate in your own hands, don’t you think?”

“I think so.” Kijima takes Ryusei’s hand, allowing the other boy to pull him up to his feet. He’s proud when his knees don’t wobble. “Thank you for the advice. I’ll take it to heart.”

“You should come by our Club Room sometime when you’re not busy,” Ryusei says, giving his hand a squeeze before letting him go. “I’m heading there now to touch base. Kisaragi would extend to the hand of friendship to you if you asked.”

Kijima merely nods, with no real answer to give, and watches Ryusei walk out of the room, a towel tossed over his shoulder, his bag under his arm. He tries to ignore the strange flutter in his stomach as he watches the person who’d torn him out of power walk away.

* * *

Three weeks pass before Kijima finds the courage to enter the Space Kamen Rider Club Room, which takes up one of the bigger open classrooms in the school. He’s surprised to see just how many people are in the room when he walks inside, then does a double take when he recognizes far too many of the students in the room. Not as Gentaro Kisaragi’s friends who were with him when Kijima faced off against him, but as fellow Horoscopes.

It had been part of his reintroduction into the school. He had been told which students were formerly Horoscopes and which ones had had their memories wiped so that they no longer remembered what part they played in Gamou’s plans. Jojima he expects to see, and Kuroki at least makes sense, but the others… He would never have thought he would walk into a room to find Yamada, Sugiura, Suda, and Goto all gathered together.

Yamada notices him first, raising an eyebrow at him. “Come to join in the fun, Kijima?”

The question does the hard work of getting the attention of everyone in the room, who all turn to stare at him in the doorway at precisely the same moment. Having everyone’s eyes on him makes his chest tight and his breathing constrict even though he used to step onstage in front of people all the time with no trouble. A lot has changed since then, though.

“Kijima, you came!” Kisaragi pushes everyone else out of his way so he can clasp Kijima’s shoulders, a bright smile spread across his face, forever a bouncing puppy full of affection for everyone around him. “Ryusei said he invited you, but I didn’t think you’d come.”

“I suggested waging bets on whether or not you would inevitably show up, but Kisaragi dissuaded me from the idea,” Sugiura adds dryly.

The humor in the situation is obvious, but Kijima still doesn’t laugh. He just presses his lips together, a little in shock from all of the attention. “I didn’t know all the others were here.”

“I thought telling you would make it too easy for you to make a decision. You needed to be unbiased for you to decide.” Ryusei appears at Kisaragi’s shoulders, gently pulling the taller boy off of him. “Give him a little space, Kisaragi. You’re lucky he didn’t attack you. I told you his reflexes have been improving dramatically, didn’t I?”

Kisaragi blinks at him before beaming, nodding immediately. “That’s right! Well, Kijima, are you here to stay? You can join if you want to. We let everyone else in here join.”

His wording is careful, which means the lot of them have had discussions about how to keep the truth from Suda and Goto. Kijima understands; the two of them were lucky to not have to remember their pasts and everyone obviously assumes that it’s best to let them remain that way. But what stuns him is that Yamada and Sugiura had chosen to join with their memories intact, and more than that, that Kisaragi had invited someone who requested his murder into his group of friends. Does he truly have no common sense at all?

“There’s no pressure,” Ryusei says, and his voice is low and soft enough to startle Kijima out of his thoughts and back into the moment. “Really, there isn’t. Everyone here asked to join out of their own volition, and provided they apologized for what they did, we accepted them.”

Kisaragi nods, clapping Kijima on the shoulder. “That’s what friendship means. Understanding people, forgiving them when they’re sorry if it’s possible for you to do so.”

“You don’t owe me forgiveness,” Kijima murmurs. “I did something terrible. Something that most people would considering unforgivable. You don’t owe me anything. But, just the same, I’m sorry for what I did. I had no right to drag your friends into my games, and I could have seriously hurt all of you if Ryusei hadn’t stopped me.”

Kisaragi grasps him by the hand, pulling him closer. “And I forgive you for it. And I know the others will, too. So, do you want to join the Space Kamen Rider Club?”

Kijima sighs but nods, squeezing Kisaragi’s hand. “I do.”

The friendship handshake is still stupid, but Kijima finds himself unable to stop a smile from blooming across his face just the same. Ryusei takes him by the arm and leads him into the room while Kisaragi closes the door, and it must be enough for the others, because they finally stop staring at him and return to whatever it was they were doing before. Well, at least, most of them. Yamada watches him with a raised brow for a long moment, then smiles and looks away.

“You don’t have to be so tense, you know,” Ryusei murmurs, pulling Kijima over to an empty desk and pushing him down into it. “I know why you are, and I understand your nervousness, I do, but the others aren’t going to say anything to you about what happened now.”

Kijima huffs and bows his head. “I don’t suppose you would know what it’s like to carry this burden around, knowing that everyone else knows about it—”

“I only made the request that someone should kill Kisaragi,” Yamada says, turning around to look at them. His dark eyes spear right through Kijima like they always have. “Who do you think accepted it?”

Ryusei sighs. “Blunt as always, Yamada.”

“Blunt writing is the best writing, I’ve found,” Yamada croons.

Kijima looks up at Ryusei. “You..?”

“I did, and he forgave me, and now we’re the best of friends.” Ryusei squeezes Kijima’s shoulder, and his stomach squeezes in response. “It’ll be okay now. I promise.”

If Kijima smiles at him, it isn’t because of his encouraging words alone.

* * *

“I’m surprised you were willing to come all this way just for a martial arts tournament.” Ryusei catches up with him after he showers, dressed down in just a t-shirt and jeans, his hair still damp and his face flushed from exertion. “Did you like what you saw?”

 Kijima nods, confident enough in that. Haruka had mentioned to him that Ryusei had a tournament date upcoming, and if Kijima was serious about taking his fighting to the next level, it might not hurt him to see everything Ryusei was capable of doing. Truth be told, he was willing to take the bus to make the tournament as soon as he realized he had a chance to see Ryusei in true form outside of his Meteor transformation. Most of his best had only been on display to Kijima when they had been fighting, and it had been… Well, it had been enough.

This, though, was even better. Seeing Ryusei’s neutral expression as he dealt out punishing blows, easily evading those who came for him, handling his defense like a deadly professional. Kijima had been mesmerized by him.

“I’m glad. Though you didn’t have to get so dressed up.” Ryusei’s voice is soft with teasing, catching one end of Kijima’s scarf between his fingers as he studies the material. “This is very nice. Your clothes are always very nice when you’re not in your school uniform.”

Kijima scoffs at him, easily batting his hand away. “I like to look good, and I know what it takes to do so. So, what are you going to do now?”

“My parents don’t mind me coming home late so much anymore, so I had plans just to explore the city for a while. I hadn’t planned on anyone else coming, though.” Ryusei cocks his head at him, and Kijima thinks that maybe Kisaragi isn’t the only puppyish person in the Kamen Rider Club. “Would you like to come with me? I wouldn’t mind company.”

The offer is too good to let pass by. “Sure. I’ve only been here once with the rakugo club.”

“Then let’s go.” Ryusei offers him his hand once again, and just like on that day in the gym, Kijima takes it.

It’s on the train ride back home later that night, with the stars twinkling brightly in the dark velvet sky, that Kijima has to admit this was perhaps the worst decision he’s made in quite some time. Spending time with Ryusei has only confirmed to him that he has a crush in the first place, and that it runs far deeper than he once believed it to run. How is he supposed to keep himself together around Ryusei and the rest of the Club as he manages this? He’s never been particularly good with keeping his emotions to himself, after all.

Ryusei sits next to him, head tipped back on the seat, eyes closed, though the faint smile on his lips lets Kijima know he’s not sleeping. When the faint sound of vibration echoes in the air, Ryusei removes his phone from his pocket, considering the screen.

“What is it?” Kijima asks.

“Tomoko just wants to know how the tournament went.” Ryusei unlocks his phone to answer, the screen’s backlight making his face glow in the darkness.

“The Goth girl?” Kijima clarifies, frowning when Ryusei nods. “Ah, your girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend? What? Oh, no, Tomoko is just my friend. I don’t have a girlfriend.” Ryusei pockets his phone, then glances over at Kijima with a raised brow. “Why does it matter if she is or not, though?”

Kijima scoffs. “It doesn’t. I was just curious.”

“You were more than curious, I think, actually. You might have been jealous.” Ryusei’s lips quirk into a smile and Kijima turns away, not confident the darkness on the train can hide his blush. “If you have something to tell me, you can, y’know. I’d like to think we’ve become friends, or are at least on the right track.”

“Maybe I would be jealous. Maybe I do think of you… Somewhat fondly.” Kijima forces himself to turn back around, swallowing hard around the lump in his throat. “You could have given up on me, and you chose not to. Maybe… I have a bit of a crush on you.”

Ryusei laughs, and only the absence of any cruelty or spite in the sound keeps Kijima from flinching away at the sound. Instead, he waits, surprised when Ryusei grabs the end of his scarf again, winding it around his fingers. “I suspected as much. You could have just been honest with me, you know. Instead of being all quiet and awkward around me like this.”

“So, you noticed,” Kijima murmurs, about to turn away again.

Ryusei’s grip on his scarf makes that impossible. “I did. Don’t look away from me. Talk to me now that the floor for the conversation is open. You like me, right?”

“I do.” Kijima sighs. “I won’t let it keep making things awkward between us.”

In response, Ryusei hums. “I think I know a way around that, actually.”

He pulls Kijima closer by his scarf, giving Kijima just enough time to realize what his goal is and to decide if he wants to go with it or not. He leans in instead, letting there be just enough space that Ryusei is the one who has to close it, to press his lips to Kijima’s, to prove he wants this because Kijima already knows he does. But then Ryusei pulls him just that much closer and presses their lips together, and Kijima lets his eyes fall closed with a soft sigh.

Ryusei is a good kisser, a better kisser than Kijima expects him to be, and he loses his breath faster, gasping against Ryusei’s lips while the other boy just smiles against his.

“Date me,” Kijima says without hesitation.

“Gladly. Wasn’t today just one big date, after all?” Ryusei takes his hand, giving it a squeeze, and Kijima’s stomach flutters. “I hope you come to more of my tournaments.”

Kijima smirks at him. “One day, I’m gonna kick your ass in them, too.”


End file.
